(Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

On the move

Diamond North expanding; long term tenants given notice

Sep 3, 2019 | 5:00 PM

The Prince Albert branch of Diamond North Credit Union has made some big plans, but unfortunately those plans will not include the two business which have collectively occupied the same building for over 80 years.

Darryl Frenette has been cutting hair at Gil’s Barber Shop for close to 30 years after taking over from his father. The elder Frenette moved into the building in 1979 and so Darryl said when he received the news about his lease not being renewed, he was a bit upset at first.

“Once I thought about it I thought it’s probably the best thing that will ever happen to me because now I’ve got my own place,” he said. “At the end of the day it turned out better; it was just the little nudge I needed to move on to the next step.”

Frenette’s lease does not expire until Oct. 31, but over the weekend he already moved to his new location at 2333 B Second Ave. W. Frenette said all his customers have been very supportive.

“Everybody was kind of excited and happy for me to move to a new location,” he said.

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The 7 Day Cleaning Centre has been in the building for 45 years. Anna Nguyn has been there the past 10 years and told paNOW she was worried what impact the move would have on her business.

“The customers know about this location for so long and now we have to move and I don’t know how it will turn out at my new location,” she said.

(Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Diamond North Credit Union has owned the property since 2015. CEO Colleen Harmatiuk explained to paNOW that the merger with Debden Credit Union earlier this year increased their branch locations from eight to 10, and there has been a need to address staffing issues, specifically in the finance area.

“Actually the staff have been driving from Prince Albert to our Albertville branch and so we’ve been working around it so we could honour those leases as long as we could,” she said. Harmatiuk added in terms of being able to serve their membership most effectively they were now in a position where they needed to use the entire space.

Harmatiuk said the tenants were approached and they were able to come to a mutual agreement which would give the two businesses time to find new locations. She added she did not think the recent developments were a big surprise to anyone.

“I think from the time the building was bought there was always an understanding that eventually if the growth supported it, we would be looking to take on that extra space,” she said.

Moving forward, Harmatiuk said pending discussions with their architect, she would like renovations to start early in the new year, with a fresh opening at the end of 2020.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell